First the US fanfared the placement of two F-22 Raptors in the Osan airbase of South Korea. Then it demonstratively launched a B-2 stealth bomber on a training mission over a South Korean gunnery range. Then it deployed an anti-ballistic missile defense system to Guam and positioned two guided-missile destroyers in the waters near Korea. And now, courtesy of the Aviationist, we learn that the Pentagon has escalated once more in an ongoing cat and mouse game with North Korea, of who blinks first, and dispatched several B-1 ("Bone") Lancer strategic long-range bombers to Andersen Air Force Base in Guam. What is different this time, however, is that unlike the previous very public and widely trumpeted reciprocal escalation steps, this particular deployment has been kept secret from the public (at least the broader public), "a fact that could be the sign that the U.S. is not only making symbolic moves (as the above mentioned ones), but it is preparing for the worst scenario: an attack on North Korea."

NK has just completed wargames in the border region, where they created much hardship for the local civilians by clearcutting woodlands, eating local food supplies that can’t be replaced. Among their wargames were tunneling exercises.

One case of a starving soldier being beaten for stealing some rice and he retaliated and shot 5 officers.

IIRC The Bone no longer carries nukes. It was reconfigured some years ago to carry a plethora of convention weapons though I wonder does it carries bunker busters. Given the probability that young Kim and his entourage are living in bunkers the Bone makes sense. But do we have accurate intel. I do not see the haloed one going for anything less than a strike with stereotactic radiosurgical precision.

.....”this particular deployment has been kept secret from the public (at least the broader public), “a fact that could be the sign that the U.S. is not only making symbolic moves (as the above mentioned ones), but it is preparing for the worst scenario: an attack on North Korea.”.....

This is not at all surprising....of course the US, S. Korea and all others are positioning, Kim-Un and his puppeteers are showing again they are unpredictable in how far across the line they will go....they have yet to see a line under Kim Un....so someone may have to show it to him.

Kim has to go further out on his limb to save face among his people....he'll fire something now...the target is now the issue so all have to be prepared...quietly and otherwise.

The NORKS have 10K arty tubes of 152mm and up within 20 miles of the DMZ. One salvo and they’ll kill 50K people in Seoul. None of this requires much movement. The arty sites are stocked and sighted in. By the time USAF and ROK planes are in the air and cany counter battery fire is effective Seoul could be a smoldering ruin.

I understand that wasn't the only instance.....part of Kim's bravado is he's loosing control of the Military.

I've been screening through vast photos of his army....and that of Kim and those he has Photo shoots with since he took office there.. The malnutrition is apparent even in the military....remarkably so in some of the photos.

I think he's so anxious to get these propaganda photos out, now especially, that he's foolishly overlooks those around him. This was caught for a time, and soon only the “healthy” were allowed to be photographed with him...going so far as to having students from the city dress in military garb to fake the take. But they don't always get it right.

A lot of these numbers thrown around for DPRK artillery and its effects are greatly exaggerated.

Not all of it is across the border from Seoul, and only some of it can reach the northern extremes of Seoul, and then only a fraction of it can actually reach all of the vast Seoul metropolis.

And cities and human beings are far more survivable than you would think. Seoul has solidly-built buildings and people aren't going to be standing around gawking on the street after the first shells fall.

It will be bad but take with a giant boulder of salt some of the extreme predictions.

The key to winning in NK is simultaneously bombing all of their artillery positions and few aircraft without warning. But there are so many hidden tubes underground that it may require a tactical nuke carpet bombing for many miles past the DMZ. The radiation would also prevent them from rebuilding within range.

Once the big guns no longer point at SK, they can't do a damn thing. IMO, it is the only reason we don't take out their missiles that we watch for days by satellite. Right now if we hit them, they obliterate Seoul. Take that out of the equation and fatboy will fold his hand.

From his station in Amarillo, Texas, author, investigative journalist, technologies expert Steve Douglass heard something interesting. In a message he sent us on Facebook he said:

Late last night I monitored DARK flight of seven on PRIME (311.000 MHZ STRATCOM PRIMARY) asking for current weather for UAM [airport code for Guam - Andersen Air Force Base]. On the frequency of 251.100 Mhz,DARK flight also was calling for GASSR 11 and GASSR 12? (KC-135s) for Tanker drag to BAB [Beale AFB, California].

Dark is the standard radio callsign for the 7th Bomb Wings B-1s based at Dyess AFB, near Abilene, Texas.

Even if U.S. bombers routinely deploy to Guam (where at least two B-2s are reportedly already based), the fact that seven Bones were apparently moving together is something a bit unusual, even if they were not going to Andersen AFB (they might need the weather report for UAM because it was an alternate airfield or simply a stopover on their way to somewhere else).

Actually, its also weird that some many big bombers were flying together (as the flight of seven heard by Douglass seems to suggest) since a standard ferry flight of multiple planes would normally see the aircraft move individually. And, another strange thing is that the pilot talked about their destination in the clear: if they wanted it to be secret, they would speak on secure radios."

Would strategic aircraft transmit in the open? Would they break standard flight ops and fly in WW2-style formation?

Inquiring minds...

40
posted on 04/05/2013 6:06:29 PM PDT
by Old Sarge
(We are officially over the precipice, we just havent struck the ground yet...)

President Merkin Muffley: “How is it possible for this thing to be triggered automatically and at the same time impossible to untrigger”?

Dr. Strangelove: “Mr. President, it is not only possible, it is essential. That is the whole idea of this machine, you know. Deterrence is the art of producing in the mind of the enemy... the FEAR to attack. And so, because of the automated and irrevocable decision-making process which rules out human meddling, the Doomsday machine is terrifying and simple to understand... and completely credible and convincing”.

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